Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bean Cookie Experiments

I was reading about using cooked white beans as a substitute for fats in recipes and was very intrigued. So I started experimenting. First I tried a chocolate chip cookie recipe from the book, I Can't Believe It's Food Storage by Crystal Godfrey. These cookies are pictured on the tray in the center and are the brown cookies with the chocolate chips in the close-ups. The ones on the left on the tray are gluten free cookies using green pea flour and with beans as the fat substitute. Their close-up is the top photo. The ones on the right on the tray are the same gluten free pea flour cookies where I used the fat called for in the recipe. They are also in the lower close-up photo. This genius recipe was developed by Dorothy Allard:

Check her blog for lots of interesting GF recipes and information. When I made these cookies I used chopped Andes mints instead of chocolate chips for the mint flavor to go with the green colored cookies.

Here are the directions for the white bean chocolate chip cookies:

I used navy beans, a small white bean. For each pound (2 cups of dried beans, add 10 cups of hot water. Heat to boiling and let boil for 5 minutes. Turn off heat, cover pan and let soak for at least one hour or overnight. (My beans are several years old so it took an overnight soaking an about 4 to 5 hours of simmering to cook them.) Once the beans are tripled in size from the soaking drain well. This removes the sugars that cause bean gas. Rinse out the pan and put the drained beans back in. Cover with water until the water level is about 1-2 inches above the beans. Bring back to a boil and then cover the pan and turn down to a simmer to cook. Cook the beans until they are tender but not falling apart. Drain the beans and store in the refrigerator or freezer for future use.

The book says to use the beans in recipes where butter is creamed with sugar, just make sure the beans are well drained and mash them up and cream them with the sugars. The flat end of my meat tenderizer is great for mashing these beans. They add more moisture to the mixture than butter or shortening.

To use the beans in recipes were oil is called for, make a bean puree by placing beans in a blender, then adding enough water to blend beans into a smooth, thick paste with no chunks. I think you may not have to add any water at all from what I have tried so far.

White Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup cooked, drained white beans

3/4 cup white sugar (I used evaporated cane sugar)

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs (If you are using powdered eggs, omit the water for reconstituting)

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal, pulverized in a blender

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

12 oz chocolate chips

Mash the beans and cream them with the sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix flour, oatmeal, salt. soda and baking powder into the creamed mixture. If dough is too dry, add a small amount of water. (The dough was very moist for me without adding any water.)

Dough will be thick and slightly sticky. Slowly stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Take the cookies out of the oven before they look done or they will be too crispy. These make about 7 dozen. Store any that will not be eaten in one day in a zip-top bag in the freezer.

I loved these cookies and totally felt like I was eating very healthy stuff. I could even eat some for breakfast and feel perfectly justified!

Results?

The pea flour cookies with the beans as the fat substitute and the ones with the organic shortening were the same in taste. Only the texture was different. The ones with the beans were softer and kind of seemed like a candy bar.